Hard Truth Read Free Page B

in her laptop, check her email to make sure there was nothing from a client that needed to be handled immediately, and then she’d turn in early. She was tired from driving and from the emotional ordeal of coming home for the first time since her mother had moved in with her. So far she’d been okay—a little unsettled, but okay. She wasn’t sure how the rest of the night would play out, though. She’d never slept alone in this house that she and her siblings had long ago accepted as having unseen occupants.
    “You still here, Uncle Will?” Lorna called from the front hall. “ ’Cause I’m going to be around for a while and I’d appreciate you letting me get some sleep, okay? I’ll mind my business if you mind yours . . .”
    She was grinning as she went outside to bring in her computer and a few other items, the television included, just in case she was unable to sleep and needed an electronic diversion. The entire family had long recognized that her great-uncle Will Palmer had remained in the house since his passing in the 1940s. His was a benign if sometimes disconcerting spirit, and over the years they’d all come to accept his presence. Actually, for the most part, they ignored it. Though it had been such fun as a teenager to tell the stories about his sightings. Invitations to sleepovers at the Stiles’ house were prized by Lorna’s and Andrea’s friends—especially slumber parties where there was safety in numbers. There were those who even today would swear to having encountered Uncle Will in the upstairs hall or in one of the bedrooms, but whether such sightings had really taken place had not seemed to matter. Uncle Will’s ghost had found a place in local legend.
    The phone started to ring again while Lorna was setting the television onto a kitchen counter, and she grabbed it on the second ring.
    “Hello?”
    “So how is it?” True to form, Lorna’s sister, Andrea, didn’t bother to identify herself, but jumped immediately into conversation. “What’s it like there?”
    “Quiet.”
    “Where’s Mom?”
    “Still in the back of the car.”
    “You haven’t scattered the ashes yet?”
    “Christ, Andi, I’ve only been here a few hours.” Lorna was grateful that her sister couldn’t see her face at that moment. “Let me get unpacked, okay?”
    “Well, I’d have thought that would have been the priority.”
    Easy for you to say, since you’re there and I’m here.
    “My priority was unlocking the front door, getting something to eat and something cold to drink. There’s no air-conditioning here, you might recall, and the temperature is—”
    “Okay, okay, so you’ll take care of it tomorrow. I don’t know how you can stand having them just sit there. The whole idea makes my skin crawl. I wish she had wanted to be buried, like Dad did.”
    “Well, she didn’t, so we have to respect that, don’t we?” Lorna replied tersely.
    “I suppose.” Andrea sighed as if somehow she’d made a huge concession on Lorna’s behalf. “Where are you sleeping tonight?”
    “I haven’t decided yet.”
    “Is Uncle Will still there?”
    “I don’t know. I haven’t been here long enough to find out.”
    “Let me know if he prowls around tonight. He might not like anyone being in the house, now that he’s had it to himself all this time.”
    “I doubt he’ll notice.”
    “Are you all right there by yourself?”
    “Sure. I’ll be fine.”
    “Is there anything I can do for you while you’re there?”
    “I don’t know what you could do from Oklahoma, Andi.”
    “What do the new houses look like?” Andrea said, changing the subject abruptly.
    “I haven’t seen them yet. I thought I’d walk across the field tomorrow and take a look.”
    “I hope they’re not tacky boxes.”
    “I doubt they are. The builder told Mom they’d be selling for a lot of money.”
    “That’s good. How was the ride to Callen?”
    “Long and hot. I’d forgotten how far a drive it is.”
    “You